Belarus may place $400 mln Eurobonds as markets improve

Belarus could place Eurobonds worth up to $400 million, although the placement is unlikely in the next few weeks due to the unfavorable situation on sovereign bond markets, a banking source said on Tuesday.

Russia's Sberbank will manage the Eurobond issue, along with Deutsche Bank, RBS and BNP Paribas.

In mid-May, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko granted the country's Cabinet of Ministers permission to issue Eurobonds worth a total of $2 billion in 2010-2011 with a maturity of at least five years.

Belarus has received billions of dollars from the IMF, World Bank and Russia over the past year as it struggled to deal with the effects of the global financial crisis, but Lukashenko said last month that the country was emerging from recession.

"The country has exited the recession; this is the evaluation of the World Bank and the IMF," he said, predicting that the Belarusian economy would grow 11% this year.